ISRO is set to launch the NISAR satellite on July 30, a collaboration with NASA to monitor Earth changes, aiding disaster management and agriculture.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Tuesday said it was all set to launch NISAR satellite, a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the Indian space agency and NASA that can detect even small changes in the Earth’s surface such as ground deformation, ice sheet movement and vegetation dynamics.
On July 30, at 5.40pm, NISAR or the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, which has been a decade in the making, will lift off aboard Isro’s GSLV-F16 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The life of the mission is five years.
“GSLV-F16 is ready to carry NISAR into orbit. Final prep underway. Launch countdown has commenced at 14:10 hours today,” Isro posted on X on Tuesday evening.
At a pre launch news conference late Monday night, Phil Burella, NISAR project manager, said following a high level meeting between Isro and NASA, both teams agreed that the spacecraft, mission and launch vehicle were ready for lift off. So everybody gave a thumbs up and that’s great news,” said Burella. “The range looks good, the weather looks good.”
The satellite was mounted on the rocket and its systems were checked on July 28, and the launch will be the third by Isro since January.
With a joint investment of more than $1.5 billion, NISAR features NASA’s L-band (1.25 GHz) and ISRO’s S-band (3.2 GHz) radars, making it the world’s first dual-frequency radar imaging satellite to observe the earth.
Employing the SweepSAR technology, the satellite will scan the entire globe and provide all weather, day and night data at 12-day interval and enable a wide range of applications. It can help in assessing natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and landslides. The satellite’s data will also be used for sea ice classification, ship detection, shoreline monitoring, storm tracking, crop mapping, and changes in soil moisture—all of which are vital for governments, researchers, and disaster management agencies.
Data from the satellite will start coming in after completion of the 90-day commissioning period, and will be freely accessible to within a day or two of observation, and in near real-time in case of emergencies.
Teams from both space agencjee worked on building the satellite despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Sunday, union minister for science and technology Jitendra Singh on Sunday said NISAR is India’s scientific handshake with the world.